Constitutional History of England, Henry VII to George II. Volume 3 of 3Hallam, Henry
History
Constitutional History of England, Henry VII to George II. Volume 3 of 3
Hallam, Henry
Constitutional history -- Great Britain
entire and heartfelt attachment to its authority the condition of
civil trust; but nothing more than a promise of peaceable obedience
can justly be exacted from those who ask only to obey in peace. There
was a bad spirit abroad in the church, ambitious, factious,
intolerant, calumnious; but this was not necessarily partaken by all
its members, and many excellent men might deem themselves hardly dealt
with in requiring their denial of an abstract proposition, which did
not appear so totally false according to their notions of the English
constitution and the church's doctrine.[293]
FOOTNOTES:
[152] _Parl. Hist._ v. 54.
[153] _Parl. Hist._ v. 108.
[154] Journals, 11 and 12 Feb. 1688-9.
[155] _Parl. Hist._ 345.
[156] Lords' Journals, 22 Nov. 1689.
[157] The guards retained out of the old army disbanded at the king's
return, have been already mentioned to have amounted to about 5000
men; though some assert their number at first to have been
considerably less. No objection seems to have been made at the time to
the continuance of these regiments. But in 1667, on the insult offered
to the coasts by the Dutch fleet, a great panic arising, 12,000 fresh
troops were hastily levied. The Commons, on July 25, came to an
unanimous resolution, that his majesty be humbly desired by such
members as are his privy council, that when a peace is concluded, the
new-raised forces be disbanded. The king, four days after, in a speech
to both houses, said, "he wondered what one thing he had done since
his coming into England, to persuade any sober person that he did
intend to govern by a standing army; he said he was more an Englishman
than to do so. He desired, for as much as concerned him, to preserve
the laws," etc. _Parl. Hist._ iv. 363. Next session the two houses
thanked him for having disbanded the late raised forces. _Id._ 369.
But in 1673, during the second Dutch war, a considerable force having
been levied, the House of Commons, after a warm debate, resolved (Nov.
3) that a standing army was a grievance. _Id._ 604. And on February
following, that the continuing of any standing forces in this nation,
other than the militia, is a great grievance and vexation to the
people; and that this house do humbly petition his majesty to cause
immediately to be disbanded that part of them that were raised since
Jan. 1, 1663. _Id._ 665. This was done not long afterwards; but early
in 1678, on the pretext of entering into a war with France, he
suddenly raised an army of 20,000 men or more, according to some
accounts, which gave so much alarm to the parliament, that they would
only vote supplies on condition that these troops should be
immediately disbanded. _Id._ 985. The king, however, employed the
money without doing so; and maintained, in the next session, that it
had been necessary to keep them on foot; intimating at the same time,
that he was now willing to comply, if the house thought it expedient
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